A Cadence in Memorandum
by Delena Aneled Hupp
Summary: A lesson in Sacrifice: Aang felt wisps of himself etch away in the aftermath. Somewhere, a lifetime away, Katara screamed after him, her voice blending with her brother’s. ‘Maybe,’ Aang thought vaguely, ‘Maybe this is how I go on.’


_**A Cadence in Memorandum**_

_**By**_ Delena/Aneled Hupp

_**Rating**_ K / PG

_**Genre**_ General

_**Legalities**_ All recognisable characters present in this derivative work are property of Nickelodeon and Viacom.

_**Mission Summary**_ A lesson in sacrifice: Strange, how a boy they knew for little more than a year of their lives could haunt them long after the fall.

_**Mission Statistic Warnings**_ Character death visited in retrospect.

_**Mission Status Report **_One-shot.

_**Pre-Mission Briefing **_I needed a reason to contribute to this fandom in fiction; turns out I was bitten by just the bug… bittersweet victory. Also, I don't like having to explain the title, but if it escapes anyone just ask and I'll clear it up for you; I won't bite.

_**End briefing-Begin Document**_

Swish, splish, swish, splish. The water beneath Katara's hands rocks to and fro responsively and rhythmically and her young son mimics her in time. Twelve long years have shifted through and shaped the regrowing Southern tribe anew, twelve long years have passed with care as the world picks itself up again; twelve years have been lost to progress. 

Katara is once more among her family and lineage in the south, among the ice and the snow; a never-ending winter just the way she's always preferred it. She teaches her son, and those who wish to learn, the art of Waterbending and she tends to the ill and dying. She muses, ponders the state of the world now that twelve years have passed her by since the fall of the Avatar Aang and the end of a century-long Fire Nation conquest. The world, she notes now and again with dull regret, isn't any darker a place than it was when she was small, but it is much quieter now; the sound of laughter barely reaches her heart.

Katara moves on, though, mostly, and her life here and now with her husband and her son is what _is_ so she finds there's no point in allowing herself to be consumed by what _was,_but she allows herself time to remember, when quiet moments intrude upon her daily life.

So Katara rebuilds. She rebuilds her own life and the lives of her tribal kin, she rebuilds bonds she lost during her extended absence as a teen, she rebuilds her faith in the kindness of people. Katara will never be entirely whole again, but she lives and she smiles, and so long as she still has people who love her and people she loves in return, she's whole enough to realise that Aang's sacrifice wasn't wasted on an empty world.

Sometimes she wonders if the Avatar spirit has found its way into her tribe this time around.

-------------

Sokka travels.

Since times of global war met a most abrupt end in a bitter stalemate, Sokka has found himself skipping from port to port with the remaining warriors his father left behind. They, like Katara, rebuild. Sokka revisits places that conjure up wistful memories and traces familiar paths in cities that bring a twinge of pain as he remembers their significance in his box of nostalgia.

He finds himself back on the Island of Kiyoshi on occasion, but never lingers too long; while his sister is largely willing to face the unpleasant losses of their year-long journey, Sokka isn't quite so eager to confront a reminder of his last great passing just yet. He said goodbye to his fallen warrior-girl twelve years ago and moved on blindly with his sister and Toph as they steadied the shaken foundations of their hopes.

He visits the esteemed Bei Fong estate as often as his sea-bound life permits; though much has passed between the Water Tribe warrior and his outspoken friend she is still the solid earth to his swift and tumultuous water. Once there had been a passion where now reside warm embers of a sturdy companionship and Sokka finds that he isn't saddened by this transition he's flowed through with the estate heir; they were strong _are still very, very strong _ and he finds that this enduring and unwavering friendship the Earthbending woman and he share may be all that he needs until he can find himself again, if he finds himself again.

Sokka could always bounce back most times, undaunted by failure and willing to charge head-first a second time, but thing aren't as they were, not entirely. The world had shifted around Sokka when Aang had died, and in him had settled a hardened maturity that insisted, _not everything is mendable._ Strange, Sokka muses from time to time, how a boy they knew for little more than a year of their lives could haunt them long after the fall.

Sokka does take heart in knowing that some part of Aang is alive again somewhere, even if they'll never meet again in this life.

-----------------------------

Voices flurry in all directions.

Toph finds these galas to be tiresome drivel, but she stews on it beneath a regally placid exterior. It's been nine years since she's swallowed her pride and her feet found their way once again to her parents' door. The time in between the war's end and her homecoming had been spent avoiding responsibility as best as she could muster; she had remained with Katara and Sokka until Sokka had grown restless in that frozen hell the water siblings called home. She hasn't had contact with Katara once during these past nine years at home, but Sokka still drifts in on occasion to visit.

"Lady Bei Fong!" a cheery voice greets the twenty-four-year-old estate heir and Toph turns toward the source of the voice with a well-practiced smile befitting of a hostess and faces her trivial duty.

Later in the evening, free from the restrictions of formal attire and the expecting eyes of high society, Toph joins a group of people she feels natural around, her soldiers, and they socialise through the early morning hours; it is here that Toph can entirely unwind. In the years following the reestablishment of the Earth Kingdom's governing system, through a series of back-breaking formalities and legalities, Toph has been appointed commission as one of the Earth King's top-ranking generals. With this post comes responsibilities, among them, maintaining diplomatic relations with the Fire Nation, but these are tasks she much prefers over the ones dictated by her nobility lifestyle.

Despite the utter chaos that this upper-class life and diplomatic role brings, Toph realises that she's never felt more at peace. There is still a part of her that reverberates a dull ache when she thinks of the Avatar, but she's experiencing the fruits of his final act and realises, perhaps more than even Katara does, that what Aang did was everything he possibly could do. Toph thinks that maybe her ability to accept Aang's passing stems more from the mere fact that she only knew him half as long as the water siblings than her stubborn ability to adapt. Somehow, she observes when in quiet retrospect, that Airbending monk has left an impact in her life regardless of how little time they had to bond.

Toph catches herself smiling often when thinking of water tribes.

---------------------------

The Fire Nation is in sad disrepair.

Zuko does what he can with the resources he has to keep the nation from the brink of civil war. It's a tiring endeavour and the young Fire Lord is beginning to think it a pointless effort, yet he plugs on in the hope that he can one day pull his country out of their economic slump. Somewhere in the back of the young sovereign's mind lurks a bitter contempt for those who had gone before him and endorsed the prelude to defeat that saw him here, overlooking this hopeless mess of a kingdom. Twelve years have passed since his father was killed; twelve years of struggling with a people who didn't want to be saved, twelve years of cancerous pessimism from his own heart and his wife's dreary musings. The years haven't been gentle with Zuko.

He's always just ahead of the assassin's blade and there are long breaks where Zuko thinks he can breathe again only to be caught nearly off-guard. These attempts don't really surprise Zuko, though; it comes with the territory, as they say, and yet he feels that the continued existence of his unstable little sister may be the dominating source behind these failed efforts. Sometimes at night, Zuko entertains the suspicion that, perhaps, his wife had never truly deserted Azula and her stilettos are waiting deftly at her side, ready to strike when her husband sleeps soundly. On such nights, Zuko usually forfeits sleep in favour of burying himself in ancient texts housed deep within the palace.

Zuko finds a bright spot in his bleak existence, though, when the Earth Kingdom's respected general pays a bi-monthly visit to discuss politics first _ always with disinterest on both parties' behalves _ and follow with relatively amicable conversation. General Bei Fong is the only relic from the Fire monarch's brief time with the Avatar's party that he still speaks regularly with. With the Avatar moving on to its next incarnation and the shaky alliance with the water tribe siblings a mere thing of necessity all those twelve years ago, the blind Earthbender is the only one remaining who doesn't find it a formality after the fact to relate to Zuko. The young man is inexpressibly grateful for Toph's stable presence when it seems everything else in his life is back on a fast track to ruin.

There are times, however, when Zuko feels that the Avatar had been _ will be _ the only means of righting this muddy aftermath of the storm of the century.

-----------------------------

_It seemed the entire cosmos rained down at his will._

_In his final moments, Aang felt no rage, no hate, no turmoil. There was a complete harmony to his storm as he brought down the weight of the world on himself and the Fire Lord. He knew he'd leave them behind, yet he knew they'd persevere and so he surrendered himself entirely to vortex of life surrounding him and unleashed a century's worth of tears, challenges, and sufferings upon the figurehead of war whom he had confronted alone. _

_Aang felt wisps of himself etch away in the aftermath. Somewhere, a lifetime away, Katara screamed after him, her voice blending with her brother's. 'Maybe,' Aang thought vaguely, 'Maybe this is how I go on.'_

_And he felt parts of what made him Aang slowly evaporate. _

_'Maybe this next time will work out.'_

**_End Document_**

_**Post-mission analysis**_Well, this mess probably doesn't make any sense to anyone else at the moment, but through my sleep-deprived eyes I think it does. This may be subject to serious revision if I find that it's a right disaster after I wake up. But yeah… I really _don't_ want Aang to die, but damned if it wasn't a fun writing prompt. I swear I'll write something that appeals to a more broadened interest in the future when I dip back into this fandom.

**End Transmission**


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